Ebola Crisis Grows: What You Need to KnowThursday, 31 Jul 2014 04:55 PM
Schools have closed, there are
house-to-house searches for the sick, and the death toll
continues to rise from the Ebola epidemic sweeping West
Africa. In Sierra Leone, the president has declared a state
of emergency over the disease, which is up to 90 percent
fatal.
Here in the U.S. there is growing
concern about the threat in the wake of reports that a man
with the virus nearly boarded a plane bound for Minneapolis,
potentially carrying the disease to America.
The U.S. Peace Corps has
evacuated hundreds of its volunteers from affected countries
after two of its workers had contact with an Ebola victim
who died. The workers are now under isolation.
The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control issued a travel advisory Thursday warning Americans
not to travel to the three countries stricken with Ebola,
Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.
Newsmax Health asked Michael Zimring, M.D., director of the
Center for Wilderness and Travel Medicine at Mercy Medical
Center in Baltimore, to answer common questions about
deepening crisis, which has so far claimed more than 700
lives.
Q: Describe the course of Ebola. What are the early symptoms
and how does it kill?
A: The early symptoms are fever, headache, fatigue. and low
blood pressure. The virus destroys the immune system. It
also makes capillaries (the smallest of the body’s blood
vessels) permeable, allowing fluid in. As a result, blood
pressure drops and the body begins leaking fluid. The person
goes into shock, their organs fail, and they die.
Q: What can doctors do for someone with Ebola?
A: There is no cure and therefore only supportive care can
be offered. In other words, doctors try to keep the blood
pressure up, give the person fluids, and do all they can to
make sure the organs don’t fail.
Q: How contagious is Ebola?
A: It is contagious by transmission of body fluid. If
someone eats a monkey that was infected, and they share it
with others, everyone gets sick and dies. This disease is
very dangerous to doctors because they can get it if they
are in contact with a sick person and the virus gets in
through broken skin, for instance. But you can’t get it from
air contact. If you’re caring for someone who has the
disease, or taking care of the body of someone who has died
from it, you can contract it. It is so dangerous because
there’s no cure for it. The virus works very fast.
Q: If you sat next to someone on a plane with Ebola, could
you catch it?
A: You cannot really catch it by sitting next to someone.
But if you make contact with them at all, and bodily fluids
are exchanged, then you can contract it. For example, if
they spit and you come into contact with it, you can get it.
Q: Can you catch it from a mosquito bite?
A: Not so far as we know.
Q: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control have downplayed the
threat of Ebola spreading inside the U.S. Why can’t the
illness spread in the U.S. the same way it has in West
Africa?
A: I agree with the CDC that the chances are very slim
because by the time the person gets on the plane, they might
be dead before they reach the U.S.
Q: What’s your view of the latest government travel
advisory, which warns people not to go to these affected
countries unless it is absolutely essential?
A: I think the government is absolutely right. This is a
dangerous disease which is 80 to 90 percent fatal.
Q: If someone were planning a trip to an area in Africa
where there is no Ebola, would you advise that they go ahead
with it?
A: I would say they should wait. This outbreak is the
largest in Africa ever, so I would not travel anywhere there
at this point.
Q: What’s the most important thing Americans need to know
about the Ebola epidemic?
A: I think people should be aware of the disease, but there
is no reason to panic. I also think that people shouldn’t
volunteer to go to West Africa to try to help. If you do go,
you need to have the right isolation suits, isolation
facilities, and protocol. It’s not worth the danger right
now.
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